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Your comments on my Sunday column

My Sunday column is another call to action on human trafficking, through the saga of a teenage girl named Long Pross. There’s also a video of Pross, posted next to the column.

Readers made a few general comments after my Thursday column about trafficking, so let me try to address some of them:

Most of customers in places like Cambodia are locals, not Westerners. That’s entirely true, and I didn’t mean to imply the opposite. Western men are only a tiny fraction of the customer base, although non-Asian foreigners are a problem. Overseas Chinese from Singapore, Taiwan and elsewhere often end up as buyers of virgins, for example.

It’s just as bad in the U.S., so focus on the problem here. I haven’t done enough reporting on the issue in the U.S., but the reporting I have done suggests that the situation is much better in America than in, say, Cambodia. By and large, the young Asian women working as prostitutes in the U.S., for example, are not forced into the sex trade (although they often they are deceived about how much they will earn) and have some freedom of movement. As far as I can tell, the biggest problem of forced prostitution in the U.S. doesn’t involve foreign women trafficked into the U.S., but teenage American runaways who end up in the control of pimps. That’s where the most abusive forced prostitution lies, more than with women trafficked from abroad.

Girls in Asia are happy to sell themselves to earn some money; there’s no force involved. This is a delusion perpetuated by male customers who flatter themselves. In fact, the “voluntariness” of prostitution varies tremendously with the location. China is one extreme, where it’s almost all voluntary; likewise, in southern Africa and Brazil, few girls are imprisoned in brothels. In contrast, India probably has more sex slaves than any other country, and one study suggests that about half of prostitutes in India enter the profession unwillingly. Indeed, there are some reasons to believe that the proportion is much higher. Thailand is the country most Americans think of in this context, and it used to have a great deal of forced prostitution as recently as the 1990s. These days, Thai girls in Thai brothels mostly work voluntarily and keep a share of the money they earn, while foreign girls — especially Cambodians and Burmese — are often imprisoned in the Thai brothels and aren’t paid.

By the way, there’s one fairly simple test that gives a strong sense of whether a girl is imprisoned or not. If the customer can take the girl back to his hotel room, then that suggests that she is not forced. If the brothel requires customers to sleep with girls in the brothel, then that suggests that she is imprisoned. Both arrangements are common.

The bottom line is that, sure, some prostitutes work voluntarily. My concern isn’t what consenting adults do. But the fact that there are some women who choose to sell sex doesn’t mitigate the horror of 14-year-old girls kidnapped and locked up in brothels until they get AIDS. Millions of girls today are kidnapped and enslaved, particularly in countries like India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Malaysia. Estimates are all over the map, with the U.N. referring to 1 million children enslaved in Asia, and Lancet estimating that up to 10 million children are engaged in prostitution around the globe. The journal Foreign Affairs estimated that more women are trafficked each year into brothels than the number of slaves transported annually to the New World at the peak of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

Then there were readers who ask: What can I do? That’s complicated, because there’s no silver bullet to end the abuse. In the long run, the answers include educating girls and giving them more status in these societies. But in the short run, the law enforcement model works to some degree: If brothel-owners know that they may go to prison for kidnapping girls, they may fence stolen motorcycles instead, or sell pirated DVD’s. I have one more column from this trip that relies on interviews with brothel-owners, so stay tuned.

One way to help is to support particular groups that are active in this area. I’ve mentioned Somaly Mam’s foundation, which is a leader in Cambodia. I’d also strongly recommend reading Somaly’s memoir, “Road of Lost Innocence.” In India, one of the leaders in this effort is Apne Aap. Then there are international groups, such as the Coalition Against Trafficking, Equality Now, International Justice Mission, Ecpat; many other organizations with a broader mandate also have anti-trafficking programs.

Americans can also have an impact through the U.S. political system. In 2000, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and that led to the possibility of sanctions against countries that tolerate trafficking. Two successive heads of the U.S. State Department trafficking office, John Miller and Mark Lagon, did superb work to tackle human slavery, and it’s one of President Bush’s few positive legacies in foreign affairs. Just a few weeks ago, Congress passed an updated version of the trafficking legislation, the Wilberforce Act, which strengthens the original legislation in some ways. It will be crucial for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to appoint a new head of the trafficking office who will purse this issue with passion. We’ve seen that the trafficking office can shame other countries into cracking down on brothels, and so letters/phone calls to Obama/Hillary Clinton calling on American leadership would be one useful step. One of the leaders in the fight against trafficking has been Carolyn Maloney, a member of Congress from New York, and she’s one of the candidates to succeed Hillary as the new senator from New York; if she becomes a senator, that will help as well.

So…your turn. What are your thoughts on the column or the points raised here?

Thank you so much for educating your readers about this human rights issue. There are so many heartbreaking situations around the world, but they translate into opportunities to help the people affected.

Of course the Obama administration should continue to work toward the end of human trafficking. Could this work, though, be one of the first steps taken by the new administration toward a more multilateral or internationalist approach in our foreign policy, especially in light of the European Union’s work on this problem? If the US could help assemble a powerful coalition of nations willing to impose sanctions and achieve success collaboratively, maybe the Obama administration would achieve more success than its more unilateral predecessor in world affairs.

Thank you very much for your reports on this topic. I just viewed the video.
I am the mother of two sons, no daughters, but reading and viewing your reports brings out quite strongly protective maternal feeling and anger about what they are doing to these young women. This is just intolerable.
We need to do something about this. Raising awareness is very important. Also, no man should ever think about patronizing these places.
Please keep doing your good work and writing about this topic.
Please also publicize the foundations or organizations which are helping the young women–so we can support them.
What pressure can we place and on whom–to stop this?
Any information like that would be helpful.

Another organization fighting for the same cause is the International Justice Mission. I was fortunate to hear its founder, Gary Haugen, speak in Houston, Texas two years ago. Mr. Haugen is a lawyer who was working on the UN’s genocide investigation in Rwanda and founded IJM in 1997. The organization is comprised of lawyers, investigators, and other professionals that work with local governments to rescue victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression around the world.

While it’s such a complex issue, I think that women’s education initiatives are so important to prevent girls from becoming economically dependent and falling prey to slavery–thus, I laud your wife’s and your dedication to education in Cambodia!

I read your article after I posted (I had read yesterday’s article on the topic). I see you answered some of my questions:

1. We can donate money to Somaly Mam Foundation and also an organization called Apneaaap.
2. Congress just passed the Wilberforce Act to put pressure on countries to stop enslavement and sexual abuse of young women.
3. All of us who care (come on, gals!) should write to Hillary and Obama to tell them this is unacceptable and to not let it pass under the radar screen–but to keep it paramount.

Thank you Mr. Kristof for bringing us face to face with a truth we would rather flinch away from.

This whole sordid “industry” hinges on the johns. I mean, if there is to be any hope that this evil be eradicated, those men need to made to feel sick at what they are doing. I could be wrong, and they may be psychopaths. But if there is even a flicker of humanity left within them, that might be the key to ending this scourge.

A program on those lines was started in SFO, relying to the threat of prison time to get accosted johns to listen to a former prostitute speak of the abuse they were abetting by their actions.I do not know how successful it was.

Somaly’s organization tries to enlist the help of people outraged by these atrocities to help as many girls flee the clutches of their captors. Unfortunately, this is at best a “whack-a-mole” strategy. It is MUCH better than nothing, but cannot even prevent the problem from getting worse.

Laws and sanctions are very ineffective in getting a government to do its duty (e,g, Zimbabwe) They are more effective in getting governments NOT to do something e.g. South Africa and its apartheid policy. So the Wilberforce act is likely to be a paper tiger — the Cambodian government will pass tough laws and abysmally enforce them… You expect the State Department to monitor court cases in Cambodia?

The real key is: Are columns like yours appearing in Singaporean, Taiwanese and Indian media, the kind most likely to reach the “clientele” you speak of? I am assuming it is too dangerous to do the same in the Cambodian media, given the participation of higher-ups in this racket.

If you can nauseate even one customer enough to kick his habit, that is less money in the racketeers hands to finance a kidnapping in Cambodia’s countryside.

While you’re addressing the issue of modern slavery, please do not ignore the indentured servitude being imposed on most Americans today.

You’ll find it within higher education and health care financing. Our young adults are being forced into long term indebtedness to acquire their credentials; much longer than previous generations. The co-conspirators in this are the colleges that have consistently raised their prices much faster than the rates of inflation coupled with the finance companies willing to indenture our young at the so-called “cost” of providing an advanced education with a degree. Just follow the money and see it for what it is.

The same dynamic is at play in health care with the medical professions, hospitals and insurance companies all in cahoots to annually increase profits. The result as most of us experience it is insurance slavery discouraging free movement.

This is not to diminish the plight of those unwillingly trapped within the sex industry. But it’s not the only place where people are enslaved as a look closer to home will attest.

Thank you. You are moving toward giving this issue what it needs, a viable political identity so that it can be understood easily, to enlist support and grow in force, and so then it can create significant pressure on our elected officials. It needs that political identity.

Well, I don’t really see why we should care. These things have been going on in Third World countries for ages now. I don’t mean to be crude, but I and anyone else I know could not care less if a girl in some Third World country is sold into prostitution.

Anyway, a much greater threat to the civilized world is Islamic terrorism. I don’t see you write about radical Islam. If the Third World nations do not care about stopping ‘slavery’ or whatever, neither should we, as long as they do not bother us.

Every time I read one of your articles on the horrors of this long-standing and abominable institution, I am most thankful for the time and effort you have taken to produce such reports. I believe the tremendous service you have performed for individuals who have been affected by this ancient plague on societies worldwide will not be in vain. As you continue to bring this issue to light and as you continue to stress the vital importance of eradicating this ongoing horror, I am convinced that more and more governments (including the United States) will increase their commitment (and associated actions) towards this most worthy goal.

I just wanted to say thank you for bringing stories like that of Long Pross to our attention. Those of us who live in safety, not in fear, and who do whatever we want to do whenever we want to do it — those of us who have control over our lives — do not often think about those who have no say, but we must, because we must help them. I think it is safe to say that you are doing your part to bring about justice in this and other situations; truly, you are doing God’s work.

Sex slavery is a growing and pervasive problem, but we should remember that domestic slavery continues to exist – sometimes right under our noses. Involuntary servitude not involving sex may be the more common form of slavery in the United States. Very recently, rich, powerful couples in New York and Los Angeles were convicted of various crimes related to “importing” slaves (usually, young women from impoverished homes) and holding them against their will for years. A young woman just a few years younger than me spent her teens in a garage against her will, let out only to cook and clean for her household. She lived just a few miles away from me.

In all situations of forced service, where the imbalance of power and resources is so great, it would not be surprising if sexual servitude was part of the picture. I hope this is not the case, but if it is, it’s all the more reason for the new administration to prioritize combating slavery, broadly defined.

I think America’s universities need to play a role in raising awareness of sex trafficking in developing countries. One way to do that is to encourage Study Abroad programs in places like Cambodia and India, so students can witness firsthand the brutality of the brothels.

I now live in Vietnam and read recently about a major arrest here involving two massage parlors and scores of imprisoned girls. Any idea what generally prompts the police/government into action?

I am also curious what happened to the brothel owner who disfigured Long Pross? One would think that a small bit of diplomatic pressure along with the international embarrassment your column should cause would at least result in the brothel owner’s arrest and prosecution.

I read many blogs but have never written on one. I wanted to respond to your earlier column but lost my courage. After reading your Sunday column and reading that people wrote that they found that your descriptions of what it is like for these young girls who are kidnapped into prostitution unrealistic or too harsh, I felt it incumbent on me to respond. I am very appreciative of your consistent and insistent columns calling our attention to the slavery of our time. If we do nothing else, we need to write to Obama and Hillary Clinton and start a movement here to draw attention to the issue of slavery of young girls.
Bea

This is tragic. Slavery, like aggression, is among the most heinous crimes in international law. The United States should lend all of its moral prestige to this issue. It can set an example as to slavery around the world by focussing squarely on its own complex history and redressing fully its involvement in this illicit trade.

The United Nations, on a global scale, can take the lead as to the 21st Century variations of this age-old and abominable institution. It is the appropriate forum to engage all the nations in the world in a moral effort to eradicate this scourge.

I hope the United States will demonstrate real initiative on this question by

1. Highlighting its own history as a moral example to the world and by

2. Redressing substantively the lingering outgrowth of slavery in a comprehensive fashion.

Such action could send a postive and affirmative signal to other governments around the world thereby facilitating internationalist efforts on the part of the United Nations.

I agree wholeheartedly with everything, except for two points you have raised:

1) you mention that the prostitution problem in the US isn’t as serious as it is overseas, especially related to the issue of trafficking and imprisonment: there is growing evidence that this is not true – and more and more foreign women are being tricked into forced prostitution with promises of legitimate employment in the States. I believe the Times itself ran a series of articles on this topic a few years ago, as having to do mostly with Mexican girls, and the SF Chronicle dealt with South Korean brothels operating in the Bay Area.

2) you imply that women who engage in prostitution voluntarily aren’t as big a cause for concern: I think we need to take into consideration ‘structural violence;’ in other words, where are these women coming from, what social backgrounds, and what factors have driven them toward prostituion in the first place? As many sociologists have argued, having no VIABLE (this being a key word) prospect for making a living and therefore choosing to work in brothels are really not a choice at all, rather enforcement thinly disguised. Sure, poor women could sell vegetables for next to nothing in the market instead of selling their bodies for larger sums, but can we really consider the former an option when it does not support livelihood of the woman themselves and their dependents?

Aside from these, your discussion is extremely valuable and important as always. Thank you.

You can witness all of these and more 700 miles from Florida in Haiti. They are an estimated 300000 unpaid domestic servants in that country most of them females,some as young as 6 yrs old. They are subject to all kind of abuses and usually by age 14 end up as prostitutes.They are call Restavec and have no legal protection under Haitian law. This is an outrage in the 21st century and some cases were documented in Florida’s Haitian immigrant community. At least 2 of those cases were in the courts in Florida.The U S can do a lot to stop this abuse. Right now there is no structure in Haiti to help those victims. The Restavac practice must be stopped and the new administration can do a lot torestrain and eventually stop this practice.

Many men from US and EU travel to these countries just for the express desire to have these young girls (and boys) at their beck and call. That they are allowed to travel regularily to these countries without anyone questioning them is a large part of the problem. Perhaps this needs to be fought on two fronts – the countries where these poor children (and they are children) are so abused must work harder to stop the trade and the countries from which these men travel from regularily have to become regulated. Why can’t the US (or UK, etc.) demand Americans apply for visa to Thailand and Cambodia and see if there is a systemtic travel? If we stop the customers from getting there then there’d be less demand.

We also need to confront the issues here where children are also turned out for the sex trade. Does anyone really think that the boatloads of these illegal immigrants aren’t forced to turn ‘tricks’ here in the US?? If they’re forced to sew for 18 hours a day in basements and warehouses then they must also be forced into the sex trade as well.

I never doubted your reporting and I think it is just tragic about these poor young girls. And you are right, it happens in this country too. I agree, unfortunately, economics not ethics drives prostitution. A brutal reality, which I find difficult to absorb.

Is prostitution legal is these countries? I hate the thought of prostitution, but I have often thought if prostitution was legal in the US, then you would have to require inspectors who would regulate it, provide health care, check on the age of the females, and make sure it was only with consenting participants, in a clean environment, etc. Would that remove the trafficking in underage sex slaves?

I agree that it also must come through legislation and education. There has to be a reward economically or a penalty economically. It can’t only be the education of females, because generally most females would not choose prostitution and abuse as a profession, educated or not. So, somehow, the penalty has to be economic, as poverty seems to bring out the animals in some of humanity.

I am not well read on this subject, but I do think that turning over the rock, and exposing the evil to the bright light of world scrutiny, giving a face to the brutality, telling the stories, shames the perpetrators, and reminds the rest of us to push for reform or we become part of the darkness, by accepting it.

So, thank you for telling these tragic life stories. Remind us of the successes, too, and the heroes among us, such as yourself, who rage against the brutality.

Thank you for writing these reports. Hopefully they will make a difference with your reader’s support.

As you wrote, “the answers include educating girls and giving them more status in these societies”. Another great organization in Cambodia that your readers may consider donating to is the Cambodian Children’s Fund:

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About Nicholas Kristof

This blog expands on Nicholas Kristof’s twice-weekly columns, sharing thoughts that shape the writing but don’t always make it into the 800-word text. It’s also the place where readers make their voices heard.